Electronic apparatuses such as recent personal computers can deal with media like video data, audio data and character data. Conventionally the personal computers process mainly character data by executing software such as a database, a word processor, a spreadsheet, etc. Nowadays the personal computers comprise an internal memory having a large capacity, an MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group) circuit, an integrated high-speed modem, etc., and can process image data by executing software for reproducing still images and moving images, communication software and so forth.
Due to the standardization of an interface and a communication routine, electronic apparatuses of today can send and receive data to and from other different electronic apparatuses. A digital still camera can send and receive image data stored at the time of photographing to and from a personal computer.
When sending the image data stored in a digital still camera to a personal computer, a user makes the personal computer execute data communication software under the condition wherein the digital still camera and the personal computer are connected to each other via a communication cable. The personal computer communicates with the digital still camera and receives the image data therefrom through the communication cable. Using the personal computer, the user can freely process the image data received from the digital still camera. The user makes the personal computer execute image processing software so that he/she can process and print the image data received from the digital still camera.
Of late, a printing apparatus which is connected directly to a digital still camera via a communication cable and which prints the image data received from the digital still camera has been proposed. One of the characteristics of this printing apparatus is the decoration printing function of applying a decoration to the image data received from the digital still camera and printing the resultant image data.
Using the decoration printing function, the printing apparatus combines a decoration pattern including a figure and/or a design with the image data received from the digital still camera, and prints the resultant composite image.
However, this printing apparatus, which simply superimposes a decoration pattern on the image data received from the digital still camera, cannot always print a composite image satisfactory to the user. For example, in the case where the image of a person in the photographed image data is located in an upper position within the frame, the decoration pattern overlaps the head of the person in the printed composite image, and thus the image data and the decoration pattern are unbalanced. In order to attain a composite image in which the image data and the decoration pattern are well balanced, the user has to photograph the object over and over again or has to take photographs so that the object in the photographs are located in different positions.